Oral Proficiency Interview

The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) is a standardized procedure for the global assessment of functional speaking ability. The interview is required for any candidate seeking foreign language licensure in Illinois.

The OPI measures how well a person speaks a language by comparing their performance on specific language tasks, not with some other person's, but with the criteria set by ACTFL 2012.

The ACTFL OPI takes the form of a carefully structured conversation between a trained and certified interviewer and the person whose speaking proficiency is being assessed. A ratable speech sample is elicited from the interviewee by an individually determined series of questions or comments, which follow the established ACTFL protocol of "probes" and "level-checks."